Daredevil: Born Again - Season 1

While most people can agree that Netflix's Marvel universe was full of disappointments, with Iron Fist and The Defenders standing out as particularly bad, the love for Charlie Cox's performance as Daredevil is pretty much universal. No, no one is singling out the show's various seasons as Emmy-worthy classics, but rock-solid superhero television? Yes, there seems to be a relatively broad consensus on that.

Which is why it was Cox's Daredevil that most people mourned the loss of when Netflix and Marvel's partnership broke down, and why there was huge rejoicing when he officially became the only one to join the wider MCU.

It happened first via Spider-Man: No Way Home, then in She-Hulk, but now in earnest via Daredevil: Born Again, an MCU series that officially breathes new life into Daredevil's little microcosm, while also being a sort of defacto continuation of the general framework narrative of the Netflix era.

So, let's cut to the chase; is this a worthy continuation of the sometimes pretty awesome Netflix seasons? Yes, it is in more than one sense, because Born Again pretty much picks up the threads, both tonally and more pragmatically, from the Netflix seasons, and gives us an unreserved sequel cut from much the same mould. Vincent D'Onofrio as the Kingpin? Yes, he's the central villain again. A more sombre rendering of New York than the brighter MCU series productions? Yes. And more focus on low-tech, brutal, and kinetic fight scenes with several wild one-takes? You bet. In other words, it's all here, everything that energised Cox's interpretation of the character.

There are little bumps in the road, no doubt about it. Whether due to reshoots or behind-the-scenes issues, there are several mind-numbingly poor pieces of CG graphics that really undermine otherwise well-choreographed action, and in the first episode an otherwise emotionally hard-hitting sequence is ruined by surprisingly mediocre editing and strategic positioning of the characters. As the season progresses, there are fewer such hiccups, but they are distracting when they do occur and make it seem as if the post-production process was rushed unnecessarily.

That said, the pillars of Daredevil are still here, so Cox, D'Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, and a strong supporting cast who take themselves a little too seriously (this is a show that is largely devoid of the classic Marvel one-liners), but are believable and well-written. Yes, some CW-like melodrama creeps in here and there, especially in the mundane exchanges, which can seem almost caricatured in their supposed generality, but it's a well-acted series, no doubt about that.

You could argue that Born Again doesn't really try to propel the whole concept or framework of the series forward, because this is really more of the same, in tone, in approach, and in narrative technique. But at the same time, Charlie Cox in particular gets the opportunity to definitively prove that it really is his version of Daredevil that continues to be so compelling, and whether inside or outside the MCU, that's why the series has such dedicated fans. Born Again is therefore a worthy sequel that, despite a few stumbles here and there, manages to cement the little Hell's Kitchen microcosm as a memorable part of the now rather cosmic MCU.